A debut YA rom-com about smart girls, love-struck boys, and quantum theory Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has always been too occupied with her love of math and frequent battles with anxiety to want to date. Besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be kind of weird. But by senior year, thanks to therapy and her friends, she’s feeling braver than before. Maybe even brave enough to … brave enough to enter the national math and physics competition or flirt back with the new boy. Meanwhile, Evie’s best friend, Caleb Covic, has always been a little in love with her. So he’s horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet-cute with the new guy. Desperate, Caleb uses an online forum to capture Evie’s interest–and it goes a little too well. Now Evie wonders how she went from avoiding romance to having to choose between two–or is it three?–boys.
more
Evie and Caleb are inseparable. Best friends since kindergarten, they do about everything together, to include going to an exclusive math/science boarding school. When Evie starts dating Leo, Caleb is feeling jealous. Together, Evie and Caleb agree to work on the prestigious Frontier award which alters her relationship with Leo.
Opinion
This book is both fun and provoking. The connection between Evie and Caleb is unparalleled and this causes strife in the book. Evie doesn’t care. She wants her best friend. I loved watching her realize that wanting him is now a different kind of want.
A few of the mathematical/science topics presented gave me pause. They made me wonder about the truth of them and if there is a flaw in the reasoning.
I truly think this book will be most enjoyed by “mathy” or science people. Others will also enjoy the book, even if some of the references are lost on them. (I read about sports in books and have no clue IRL.)
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.
The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss is Amy Noelle Parks, beautifully written, debut YA romance. I was so charmed by this book from the very first line! Parks gives us well thought out characters in Caleb and Evie with strong backstories that she draws on regularly to help us understand their bond. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a sweet, angsty, tortured love story.
Let me start by saying Caleb Covic keeps a mental list of all his “almost-kisses” with Evie Beckham – how can you not love him from that knowledge alone?? These are all the times he was so close to kissing her but he didn’t because he was afraid of what would happen if he did. Evie is a brilliant young woman who is not interested in dating at all when we first meet her…. but not for long!
This novel was told in dual first person POV seamlessly weaving together Evie and Caleb’s story and building up so much of that good kind of angst for the reader that you cannot put the book down.
Amy Noelle Parks gave herself a big job when she wrote Evie’s anxiety but she did it so beautifully and with such care. Anxiety can be difficulty to see and understand because we can’t see it or touch it but Parks brought it to the surface for the reader while honoring it for those of us that suffer from it. THANK YOU!
I also want to gush over the STEM love in this book. Being smart or into Math or coding didn’t mean that the characters weren’t also normal teenagers who had first loves and played sports, which is exactly what I love to see. STEM wasn’t some niche for the friendless outcasts. I’m definitely gifting this book to my teenaged nieces and nephews!
Thank you NetGalley & Amy Noelle Parks for my free copy of this book!
Evie and Caleb have been friends for most of their lives. They are in their final year of high school at Newton Academy. Evie has never dated. Ever. Her love is for math. She’s a pretty bright student with her little quirks. She doesn’t have the best relationship with her mom and has some anxiety issues. In fact, anxiety even managed to ruin her opportunity to attend frontier last year, which is a national math and physics competition. Caleb has always only wanted what is best for Evie and is always there for her no matter what. He convinces her to try and land a spot again in frontier, this year, with the comfort of him by her side. To much avail, she decides to go for it. Enter Leo. He is one of Caleb’s friends and seems to be interested in Evie. Caleb doesn’t believe Evie will give him the time of day. She doesn’t think of boys like that. Or does she? Suddenly, she is starting a relationship with Leo and with the help of Leo as well as all the therapy she’s been in, she suddenly starts acting and feeling in ways she never has before. Caleb is suddenly driven with jealousy. Why Leo? There’s only one thing to do. Caleb masks himself as someone Evie doesn’t know and starts to talk to her over the anonymous frontier communication page. Well that just complicated things. Now Evie is realizing her feelings for not just 2 guys, but now 3. How will Evie choose which one is the right one for her? Will she be able to get through frontier this year and come out on top?
This book was a pretty cute book ! I read this one via audio book. I enjoyed reading it. It was a pretty quick and easy read. The storyline was pretty cute! Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and Amy Noelle Parks for the opportunity to read this book. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion. I rate this book .
This was just what I needed! This first love and friends-to-more story was super adorable! It’s told from both Evie’s perspective and Calab’s, which elevated the story. It’s always fun hearing both sides and knowing the thoughts behind the actions. Yes, it was a bit predictable, but aren’t most romance books? I’m not putting the plot in my review, you can see that up there ^
There’s a lot of things I loved about this story:
Evie’s anxiety and panic attacks and how open she was about it, and the therapy she receives for it. Let’s break that stigma! She’s also clearly the brightest student at her advanced tech high school and excels and mathematics (I get lost at fractions). She talked about wanting to try and appear as a boy at one point due to the fact that women in STEM are still overlooked, and I love how quickly she was talked out of that and uplifted and supported. I loved the strong female friendships, the strong females in general, the feminist boys who appreciate the strong girls. One of Evie’s best friends is a vegetarian because of the amount of green house gasses livestock create. As a vegetarian myself, I was applauding this being put out there.
As I mentioned, I’m not good at math…at all. I thought I’d get lost and not like this book due to all the numbers. Instead, Parks showed how numbers can be FUN. It made me understand WHY some people really like math and numbers. There were a few times I wish I understood what they were talking about, but not so much that I felt it detracted from the story. Her writing was beautiful. I also appreciate her author’s note and feel it’s worth reading/listening to.
I listened to the audiobook for this and I felt the narrators did a fantastic job of portraying their characters feelings and thoughts. I think this might even be one where I feel the audio is better?
Overall, a cute, witty, intelligent YA with well rounded characters..
Thank you Dreamscape Audio, Amulet Books, and NetGalley for the ALC and the opportunity to express my honest thoughts.
Actual Rating: 4.5
My expectations were low for this book, as I don’t typically enjoy main characters that prefer scientific explanations for everything that has ever happened. This book was so much better than any of those other books, though. There was a romance that I enjoyed and I found the characters very endearing. I loved the friendship between Evie and Caleb and every character’s personalities. There were many times this book had me laughing and grinning.
Since I listened to the audiobook, I thought I should mention that I enjoyed the voices of the narrators. The acting in this audiobook was great and I didn’t cringe when the male narrator tried doing a female voice.
I never wanted this adorable book to end and I hope there will be other books for the other characters!
Book 283 for the year! 4/5 stars for this nerdy ya contemporary! Great coming of age story. Perfect for fans of Geekerella. So beautifully nerdy! If you enjoy math/physics and a cute story then please give this one a go! Not my favorite cover. Loved the dual narration!
*I received this book in exchange for honest review from Netgalley* Book releases January 5th
First of all… that cover! That title! It just drew me in immediately. I’m a sucker for the childhood best friends to lovers trope. The bonus in this book? He fell first. I also love reading about characters who are very intelligent in the STEM field and I definitely got that from the two main characters, Evie and Caleb.
They’ve been friends since childhood and that just made the book more appealing for me. Having someone who knows you so well/someone you went through a lot with tugs my heartstrings. Caleb has always made Evie feel safe, and in her words: “His firmness makes my circle just. […] Like a compass. He’s my center. Home.”
I love that there were also stories from when they were younger, it reinforces their friendship and the love they clearly have for each other. It’s also amazing to see Evie’s growth from those stories and the struggles she had with anxiety. She’s able to overcome some of her fears and started getting braver to try new things.
What the book lacked: To me, it just feels like Evie and Leo were in a relationship for a longer duration in this book. It didn’t affect Evie and Caleb’s friendship negatively (except for Caleb being occasionally jealous) and it was helpful in showing Evie’s progress and development as well. There are sweet moments of the two of them throughout the book, but I just wanted more scenes of them when they actually started dating.
Despite that, I think the ending was good. It wrapped up Evie and Caleb’s story really well. It’s such a good childhood best friends to lovers book